With the city still mired in high unemployment and a sluggish economy as Election Day approaches, each mayoral candidate says he has the right plan for putting the city back on track.

Although the plans Gerald Croteau and Thomas Hoye Jr. released share some common ground, each also contains a number of unique points or proposals.

Both candidates say an important part of reviving the local economy will be to work with existing downtown and business development interest groups, develop an aggressive plan to market Taunton as a business-friendly city and work with local banks to make low-interest capital available for business investment in the city. Each candidate also says investing in improving schools and public safety will make Taunton more attractive to outside businesses looking for a new place to relocate.

One area Hoye has directed much of his attention is calling for a simplified and expedited permit process. His plan calls for pre-permitting all existing industrial land in the city’s industrial parks to create shovel-ready sites for new businesses. He is also calling for the creation of a permitting “ombudsman” to make the process more business friendly.

“I think being a small business owner myself, I know first-hand how difficult it is to go through the permitting process,” said Hoye, who co-owns Tom and Jimmy’s Ice Cream. “We need to make it easier for people who want to start their own business.”

Croteau, a retired superintendent of schools, has devoted considerable attention toward the city’s municipal finances. City government, he said, has wasted millions on bad land transactions and a solid waste disposal project that has stalled. The city, he said, is on track to be in the red by the end of the fiscal year. His plan calls for saving money by restructuring the Law Department, making the budget process more transparent and ensuring that there are timely audits available for public review.

“There’s a great deal of talk about economic growth, job development,” Croteau said. “Just picture these developers as a bank. If you think of yourself approaching the bank and you don’t have a sound plan, do you think the bank’s going to lend you money? … We need to be financially stable if we’re going to develop this community and provide more jobs for the people who live here.”

As part of his plan to aggressively market Taunton to outside businesses, Hoye said he would work to personally recruit new employers and investors and develop a plan to market Taunton to a regional, national and international audience.

Hoye also said he would create a business-to-business recruiting model using companies already located in Taunton to recruit new businesses to the city.

Page 2 of 3 - “It’s essentially got to be a collaboration,” he said. “My goal is to create a task force of business owners working toward bringing in expanded business. We need to figure out what works and what doesn’t work.”

Taunton, he said, could follow downtown redevelopment examples set by other communities, such as Haverhill and Quincy.

“The blueprints are there for us,” he said. “We’ve just got to follow them.”

Boosting Taunton’s image

While both candidates say they want to aggressively market Taunton as a good location for business investment, Croteau said he wants to reach out with travel agencies across the country to develop a marketing plan to draw the tour bus industry to Taunton. The city’s rich history and proximity to places such as Boston, Providence and Cape Cod would make it a potential tourist draw, he said.

“It’s all in the marketing,” he said. “This community’s been here since 1639. You have the Taunton River, all the history that’s here. We have to sit down with historical society and other groups interested in it and talk about how to market what we have.”

In regards to improving education, Hoye — a health and physical education teacher at Taunton High School — is calling for creating more partnerships between schools and local businesses and creating job feeder programs with local colleges.

“We want to augment what’s already there,” he said, explaining that such partnerships will show students the benefits of education.

Croteau is calling for exploring public-private partnerships to create investments in vacant properties on Weir Street and other locations in the city. Such investments, he said, could stimulate job creation and an expansion of the city’s tax base.

Another area that holds great potential for business investment, Croteau said, is the Taunton State Hospital property, as well as the Paul A. Dever State School.

“There are corporations who would be interested in developing Main Street, both from a residential type to a commercial project,” Croteau said. “That’s one possibility. All of this is still in the thinking stage. There needs to be community meetings.”

Hoye’s plan states that the city must “redefine and redevelop our downtown as a fully occupied, mixed-use center where residents are able to conduct business, live, dine and feel safe.”

“You do it by offering businesses incentives,” Hoye said. “You may have to waive or significantly reduce fees. Taunton can’t afford to have these storefronts empty. People need a reason to come downtown to shop, to dine.”

He mentioned planned mixed-use development on Trescott Street and the Union block as positive signs.

“I just think it’s important that with cuts in local aid over past three or four years, Taunton needs to control its own destiny. The only way we can do that is through economic growth and development.”

Page 3 of 3 - When it comes to attracting businesses, Croteau said the simple step of taking greater pride in Taunton’s appearance could help draw investment.

“The city is dirty,” Croteau said. “Just picture these industrialists coming to Taunton. What do they see? City Hall boarded up, a city that’s dirty. Do you think that given the choice between a community that’s relatively clean and relatively financially stable, that they’re going to come here? Or do you think they’re going to go someplace else?”

TCAM to air mayoral interviews

Croteau and Hoye appeared Monday night on “Jacobs Live” on Taunton Community Access & Media. The hour-long broadcast will air again at 7 p.m. Saturday on Comcast Channel 15 and Verizon Channel 22.